The Journal of Ecclesiastical History’s World Christianities Essay Prize awards £500 biennially to the author of an original research article on any subject relating to the history of Christianity outside Europe and North America since the year 700. The award is funded by a generous donation from the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. Contributions are welcome from any historical subdiscipline and with any chronological or geographical focus within those parameters. Contributions will be assessed anonymously and are open to any author regardless of seniority or background. Entries from junior scholars are warmly encouraged.
The judges will be seeking to award the prize to an essay which displays rigorous and groundbreaking research, effectively communicated, and of significance to the wider discipline. The winning submission will be published as an article in the January number of the Journal, and the authors of other high-quality submissions may also be invited to publish in the Journal. The judges reserve the right not to make an award in the event that no submission meets the required standard.
Submissions should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s style guide and should not exceed 8,000 words, including notes.
The next World Christianities Essay Prize will be offered in 2023 and then biennially thereafter.
The closing date for submissions is 31 March 2023, and the outcome of the competition will be announced in September. Submissions should be sent as email attachments, with ‘World Christianities Prize’ in the subject line, to Mrs Mandy Barker at jeh@robinson.cam.ac.uk.
View previous World Christianities Prize winning essays here.
2022 prize winner: Kate Tilson, University of Cambridge
We are pleased to announce that the winner of the World Christianities Essay Prize for 2022 is Kate Tilson (University of Cambridge) for her essay entitled “Childbirth and Emerging Missionary Information Networks in Britain and the South Pacific.” The essay will be published in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History in 2023.
Judges' commendation: "This is a beautifully written, well crafted, professional essay. It charts new territory in mission history and nuanced, thoughtful reflection on complex medical, religious and sociological themes. It breaks fresh ground via an innovative combination of themes: cross cultural intimacy and boundary making across gender and race; knowledge creation and exchange and the making of texts; the relation of religion to science. The author has read widely and comparatively. The result is a fascinating article, original in its insights, and exhibiting an exemplary conversation between archival sources and modern historical and anthropological scholarship."
Many congratulations to Kate Tilson!